Jobs cut as biscuit firm goes into administration

Gaynor Clarke

A total of 99 workers have been made redundant after a Wigan-based biscuit manufacturer called in administrators.

Russell Cash and Ben Woolrych, partners at FRP Advisory, have been appointed as joint administrators to Rivington Biscuits Ltd, in Hindley Green.

A sustained deterioration in trading conditions and significant additional pricing costs since the summer following the sharp fall in the value of the pound, left the business facing unsustainable cash-flow pressure.

Russell Cash, joint administrator and partner at FRP Advisory

They will continue to trade to fulfil customer orders while marketing the business and assets for sale.

The firm employed 123 people, but the joint administrators have now announced the redundancy of 99 staff.

The remaining 24 employees will help the administrators with ongoing trading.

Rivington Biscuits is best known for making wafer biscuits, which include the popular pink wafer biscuits for supermarket own labels and also sold under the Pink Panther brand.

But it faced “particularly challenging trading conditions over the past year”, leading to pressure of profit margins and cash flow.

The decline in the value of the pound against the Euro also had an impact.

Russell Cash, joint administrator and partner at FRP Advisory, said: “A sustained deterioration in trading conditions and significant additional pricing costs since the summer following the sharp fall in the value of the pound, left the business facing unsustainable cash-flow pressure. Rivington Biscuits continues to trade through administration but with a reduced staff base in order to fulfil current orders into the New Year.

“The joint administrators will now ensure discussions continue with key customers and suppliers whilst encouraging any parties with any interest in acquiring the business or parts of it to come forward.

“As administrators, given the financial situation of the company, we have had to take the difficult decision of making a large number of redundancies and our immediate priority is to assist those staff who have lost their job to make timely claims with the Redundancy Payments Service.”

Trending

Housing designated for the older generations in the pipeline for Garstang